“The Rhythm of Life is a powerful beat”! The lyrics from the 1966 musical ‘Sweet Charity’ may be familiar to some of you. If so, they may have immediately set the music buzzing around in your head. Then very soon your foot may be tapping too – because unsurprisingly the rhythm is key! Rhythm usually is key and yet we don’t always give it the attention or credit it is due. Rhythm carries the melody; rhythm organises and orders the sounds and silences; rhythm gives the melody structure and...

I read of an American woman who travelled to Zimbabwe in search of her ancestry. She asked about the traditional words used by the locals as they greeted one another - “Mhoro, wakaadii” (“Hello, how are you?”), “Ndapora kana wapora” (“I am well if you are well”). They were, she was told, an expression of Ubuntu - the African philosophy that “I am because you are” or “We are because of each other.” Her initial confusion led to a feeling of “joy that comes from feeling connected”. There is...

I write this having returned from our first flurry of Eastertide celebrations at St Oswald’s. All the waiting and preparing of Lent followed by our more focussed Holy Week journey brought us, as expected, to the threshold of Easter. Those that know me well enough, know there are 2 aspects of this season in which I particularly delight. One is the word ‘Alleluia’ – which knows no bounds in Eastertide (Easter Day is just the beginning of that). The other is the opportunity I get to ‘sprinkle’...